The first of the day’s two sessions was unusual in that it assumed an answer to the central question in the historic health care case: that the requirement that Americans carry health insurance or pay a penalty will be struck down.

In their questions, liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer took issue with Paul Clement, the lawyer for 26 states seeking to have the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act tossed out in its entirety.

“What’s wrong with leaving this in the hands of those who should be fixing this?” asked Sotomayor, referring to Congress.

Chief Justice John Roberts also spoke about parts of the law that “have nothing to do with any of the things we are” talking about.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started the two most popular blogs in the history of MPR and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories but reflections , observations, and debate.

Related Blog Posts

Reading the transcript, I highly enjoy Justice Kagan stating, “the exchanges function perfectly well in Utah, where there is no mandate.”

Indeed. Utah reformed their healthcare under Governor Jon Huntsman without a mandate. Since no one else injected politics into this thread, I will by saying it’s rather sad that the GOP didn’t look more carefully at what Jon Huntsman had to offer – a proven track record of healthcare reform that contrasts starkly to that of both Mitt Romeny and President Obama.

From what I’ve read, I don’t think the future of the healthcare act is too rosy. Congress will likely be made to return to the drawing board. Maybe we could get some reforms without mandates like they have in Utah.

Jamie

There is no way to make virtually everyone covered by health insurance without madating that everyone get insurance, unless you go to a single-payer system. I’d like to see how much Utah-ans are paying for their insurance and how many are actually covered, and how many just have only catastrophic insurance with high co-pays and deductibles. Many people, probably MOST people, can’t afford that kind of insurance. And as long as many people are not covered, we all pay more.

“a proven track record of healthcare reform…”

How long has Utah had a the reforms? What’s the situation on the ground, with the answers to my questions above?